


That First Hug

by NotNecessarilyInThatOrder



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Gen, Hugs, also friendships - Freeform, that's pretty much it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27274936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotNecessarilyInThatOrder/pseuds/NotNecessarilyInThatOrder
Summary: Short multi-chaptered fic featuring moments where friendships are formed or cemented and how bonds shine in times of need. Some exploration of lesser written about characters thoughts but basically just an excuse for author to write hugging scenes.
Relationships: Gaius & Merlin (Merlin), Gwen & Hunith (Merlin), Gwen & Merlin (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin & Will (Merlin)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22





	1. Merlin and Will

**Author's Note:**

> You can blame this on my friend’s Instagram share that said: ‘That first hug after quarantine is going to hit different.’ About made me cry. I miss hugs so bad! So I figured I’d share the only way I can. Will it make it better or worse? I’ve no clue. Four or five short chapters exploring slightly less talked about relationships.

* * *

_Of all the boys to see him light a campfire without flint why did it have to be Will?_

He knew Will of course. They’d been born the same winter, Merlin at the end of it, Will at the very beginning. Which meant he was 12 now. The second oldest of all the village boys and first loudest. He also didn’t like secrets, Merlin knew. Keeping them or having them kept from him. 

Will approached the firepit with slow, deliberate steps, crouching at its edge to observe the flame flickering against the bitter wind. 

“Is it just an illusion or did you really make a real fire?”

“Made it or summoned it I’m not sure really. But yes it’s real.”

Will’s eyes stayed glued to the dancing blaze. “Can you do wind and water too?”

“You’re not scared?” Merlin blurted out, shocked at the non reaction. 

The other boy cocked his head peering at him from behind the bangs that flopped across his eyes. “Why would I be scared?”

“People don’t like what they can’t understand.”

“Hmm true. You’ll just have to help me understand.” 

“You...you want to… I was born with it, you know. I didn’t just...You can’t tell anyone! ”

“Well obviously.”

Merlin gave him a confused frown which he replied to with a smirk. 

“I don’t know a lot about magic but I know you’re not stupid. And you love your mother. Choosing to learn magic would put you both in danger. Father’s told me how King Rience treats sorcerers. And everyone knows what Camelot would do if they found out. You wouldn’t risk that. And even if you would, Hunith wouldn’t. What kind of friend would I be if I did?”

“Since when are we friends?”

A rather offensive statement really but Will didn’t get mad. Instead he lounged back against a log and started counting off on his fingers in the matter of fact way Merlin thought was super annoying. “Well, we got lots in common. Neither one of us has a father most of the time, well you’ve never had one, but the hurt is much the same. Neither one of us like old man Simmons. We’re both too good to be stuck in this muddy hole of a village our whole lives.” 

“I like it here.”

Will smirked. “Do you? You want to live here forever? A place where you have to hide who you are or else it’s off with your head?”

Merlin tried his hardest not to flinch. “It’d be like that anywhere.”

“Hmm I’m willing to bet it wouldn’t be. Just you wait. Father will be retired out of the knighthood in a few years. He’ll have enough to take care of my mother and yours too until we find our own way. You can find somewhere you’re respected for your magic, and you can have anything you want. Your mum too. Isn’t that worth leaving home for?” 

“Even if it were, that’s a long way off.” 

“So we take care of things here until then. I’m good with ideas. I’ve already thought of so many things you can use that -” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “ _magic_ of yours for.”

“I won’t hurt anyone. Mother says-”

“Of course not. It’s no fun if people get hurt. My mother would have my hide too.” 

He leaned over and slung his arm around Merlin’s shoulders, giving him a tight squeeze. “We’re going to do great things, you and I. Just you wait.”


	2. Gaius and Merlin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First hug from the child you’d never thought you’d have.

* * *

To become a father more than halfway through his eighth decade was not on Gaius’ list of life goals. Granted the child in question would not actually be a child for much longer (a good thing, for Uther would never have allowed him to stay and take up palace resources if he’d been too young to contribute and/or earn his keep alongside the physician) but to have a headstrong, scatterbrained youth literally at his heels when most men his age wanted nothing but peace and quiet would take some getting used too. 

But he couldn’t refuse Hunith’s request to take on this responsibility, not when he already had a share in so many secrets of the young man’s past, secrets Merlin himself didn’t know. He’d had a share (indirect but real) in bringing her son into existence, maybe it was time he shared the duty of keeping him safe. That and the fact he owed the boy his life before he’d even laid eyes on him properly did a lot to stir to life the protective instinct Gaius had thought laid dead within him. 

Protectiveness soon turned to pride and affection, which then quickly blossomed into joy and love. Merlin, for all his life had forced him to mature younger than most, still found a childlike wonder in new experiences. He learned quickly and seemingly grew with every breath he took. There was also a streak of singular loyalty about the boy that reminded Gaius that one was never too old to take a new lesson to heart. 

Which is why he berated himself most strongly when his wounded pride caused him to forget it. When he allowed himself to run away with his tail tucked between his legs. All because Uther had fallen for the manipulations of a young man with a dark past and even darker motives, and dismissed Gaius with barely a thank you. 

Arthur had cast Merlin aside after the issue with the knight Valiant but still the boy didn’t hesitate to put every ounce of his untrained magic into saving the prince’s life. And that when they’d known each other less than a month and frankly didn’t even like one another that much. Gaius had known Uther for years, and though the king had never been effusive in either praise or affection the two were friends. Uther may be willing to cast that aside under suspicious circumstances but that didn’t mean he should act in kind. 

And worse, he’d left Merlin alone and unwarned against a powerful practitioner of dangerous magic. Would the boy be able to resist Edwin’s persuasiveness? What would happen to him if he tried?

_ Merlin you’ve been like a son to me. I never expected such a blessing so late in life.  _

_ And you’ve been more than a father to me, _ had been the response.  _ I won’t let this happen. _

Gaius believed him but hadn’t changed his mind. 

Ultimately it had been another’s words that had driven him back to the castle, and in the end Merlin had been the one to save him rather than the other way around. Those facts brought him both shame and pride, a pride which only grew with Merlin’s willingness to surrender all of the credit for solving the problem. It warmed his old heart in a way he couldn’t even begin to articulate. 

And after they’d said an exhausted goodnight, followed by a hug so full of longing and trust that Gaius could  _ hear  _ the walls he’d spent decades building crumbling to dust, he decided being a father may never have been his goal but he wouldn’t trade this feeling for the world. 


	3. Hunith & Gwen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A hug from someone who feels your pain in their heart. Hunith and Gwen (post Gwen’s banishment)

* * *

Nothing like a heartbroken young woman showing up at your door to make you nostalgic. No that wasn’t the right word. Nostalgia usually meant a longing for a time that was happier. And Hunith’s memories of her first and last love were anything but happy. 

She’d never planned on sharing her tale but when the former serving maid, still exhausted and half frozen, had broken down and spilled her whole story, Hunith thought it only fair for her to hear that someone else understood - really understood - her pain.

So tell she did, all the details that she had never breathed to anyone, neither uncle nor son. About her first time laying eyes on the man who would own her heart even more than twenty years later. How the day had come when she’d told him that what she felt for him was far more than protectiveness or friendship, to which he’d replied that it would never work.

_ "My bloodline is cursed to protect and provide for others. We don’t get our own happy endings.” _

He’d been right ultimately and her subsequent discovery of Merlin’s existence was the only thing that had made some days worth getting up for. 

“But in the end your heart will heal.” She promised. “You will find a reason to keep going.”

“Except I am not with child.” The girl countered. “The man I love is with another woman now. And the man I gave it all up for is dead by his own hand. What reason for moving forward can I find in all of that?”

Hunith had no words to give then, merely offering what comfort she could in the form of an embrace and a comfortable place for the other to rest her head.

She wrote to Merlin the next morning, asking what really happened. None of the answers he could give made Gwen appear any less guilty. Mother and son are both sure there is more to the story but without proof Hunith finds it hard to share Merlin’s optimism that the two lovers will reconcile. The weight of the many years since her own lost love, at much the same age Gwen was now, is too much for her to wholeheartedly believe in that kind of magic. 

One thing both women do find a measure of relief in is the news that Arthur’s engagement to a princess neither of them have heard of came to an abrupt end shortly after Gwen arrived in Ealdor. Gwen’s brief presence in Camelot may have gone unnoticed by all but Merlin but it’s impacted Arthur all the same. Time and patience may do the rest but Hunith’s priorities do not change. It’s the young woman in her care whose heart matters, not some distant king who, as much as she is grateful to him, she knows is as much a burden to her son as he is a support. 

* * *

Weeks pass.

Gwen never fails to make herself useful and a small selfish part of Hunith dreads the day she will leave her company for she knows that day will come. She can sense it in the way the silence following the reading of Merlin’s letters grows more thoughtful rather than agitated. How slowly, little by little, the stories she tells of her time with her love are told with more smiles than tears, and Hunith knows that she’s healing. 

They’re not all happy days. At times the former serving girl walks around with a hollow look in her eye, and there are days where she’ll slip out of the house for hours at a time only to return with her eyes and cheeks so red and puffy it’s a wonder she can see. 

The nights are the hardest. Hunith will often wake from the light sleep raising a child in constant mortal danger accustomed her to, to find the girl curled into a ball, painting out panicked breaths into her knees and shaking so hard it's a wonder her slim frame doesn’t crack into a thousand pieces. 

Those nights Hunith curses whatever darkness made by magic or man that allows a human to suffer an almost infinite amount of pain and not give out. For as much as she is an advocate of strength and perseverance, she also knows that there are far fewer ways to provide comfort than there are harm. 

So she sticks to the old standard, rocking the grief stricken girl in her arms and praying her tears dry before the sunrise exposes them for the world to see. 

* * *

Two months have gone by before their boys are almost literally dropped back in their arms, seeking shelter after escaping a Camelot that’s fallen under Morgana’s attack - again Hunith can’t help but rather uncharitably think. She helps an injured Arthur and the two strangers settle inside her small home, grateful that she’d sent Gwen to the barn to tend to the two recently born calves just a few minutes previously, and drags her son outside so they can update each other privately. 

Merlin and Gwen share a brief hug and smile a little later before the young woman heads inside to face her former fiancé. Hunith watches from just outside the doorway as the two talk quietly for a few minutes. Arthur stares at Gwen in wonderment, his gaze cycling through a myriad of emotions before he pulls himself up and takes her in his arms. 

It’s not a reconciliation, Hunith knows. There is too much unanswered between them and they would both be fools to take each other back without a much more honest conversation. But it’s a start and it warms her all the same. Maybe Balinor was right when he said their family wouldn’t get a happy ending, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t ensure that others did. 

In all honesty, she thought as Merlin slipped up behind her and rested his chin on her shoulder, that was enough.


End file.
